Zeroed

First Day

Game 1 - 6/12/12

17

JAN/36

The First Day of the MCU turned out to be more active than anyone could have expected. an attack on the Link Technologies headquarters started what will clearly be a long investigation to discovered the mastermind.

The First Day of the MC turned out to be more active than anyone could have expected.

It was tense, quiet. They looked at each other, strangers who had only less than an hour ago.

It was just past midnight when they got the call. Today was the day MCU Section 2 was to go live, and it looks like its going to start with a bang. The call was from one of the MCU coordinators, telling them that they’d been called in early. A hostage situation downtown demands their attention. By the time they finished getting dressed and a cup of coffee, a police vertol was already outside their place, ready to take them to the office. After a quick, nervously quiet stop at the armory, they all loaded into seats they filled now. They’ve been called in response to a terrorist attack on Link Technologies Tower, headquarters of Link Technologies. A group has entered the building and taken hostages. It was unclear, at this time, what their goal was. They’d answered only one call from negotiators, and said only this: "We have taken the people in this building hostage. We are taking inventory of our hostages and will present their identities to you along with our list of demands when we are ready. We have control of the internal security systems. Do not attempt to enter or we will kill them all. "

Jennifer looked up at the rest again,

“They’re patching me through to the terrorists, they’re finally talking. I’m going to the front, don’t interrupt me. We got about 5 minutes until we’re on site.”

Daiichi, ever the crime solver, was already trying to piece together the puzzle. He knew that Link Technologies had just recently been bought out by Integral, a cybernetics manufacturer, but didn’t really know any details.

He spoke up first, introducing himself as “the one who can’t die.” Pete ignored the question – answering only by diving deeper into his 2.0 interface. Terrance did speak up – mentioning his years of investigative experience, and his status as a registered psi. This brought a nervous chuckle from the group – and a crude joke about announcing himself like a sex offender. Caleb didn’t speak – but his abilities were apparent upon looking at him. Neck to toe, he was cyberized. When the groups gaze turned to Malcolm, instead of speaking he simply hid himself in psycic energy – becoming invisible before their eyes.

“Well, that’s a convenient ability”, Daiichi says.

Just then the Vertol dipped to the ground and came to a stop. The MCU (Minus Brock Chesterson, who was training in Japan) piled out of the vehicle.

Jennifer informed them that the terrorists provided their list of demands:

15 Million Yen
A fully fueled Kingfisher on the roof
No Fly zone enforced from here to the edge of Japanese territory for 14 hours
- OR -

Immediate resignation of the prime minister.
Upon resolution of either of these options, they will release the hostages – In the first case, in Taiwan, or in the second case, here – where they would surrender to arrest.

The hostage list turns out to be a “whos who” of Corporate Society – it turns out tonight was a celebration for an aquisition – Integral had acquired Link Technologies, a moderate sized programming firm who specialized in fine tuning cybernetic software. The entire board of directors and much of the upper management of Integral is present, along with many of their friends – including politicians. Nearly 50 of the suspected hostages are classified as “High Priority Rescue”.

Control of the scene was handed to the MCU. Jennifer received instructions from the chief to handle the situation as the team saw fit.

After what seemed like ages of deliberation, the Unit finally had a semblance of a plan. Pete, who had been monitoring airwaves trying to make contact with the building (which appeared to have no lights, and had been cut from hardline access to 2.0) found a wireless signal and was able to decrypt it. Once inside, he realized he had hacked his way into the enemies Tac-Comm network.

This, along with some cursory information found by the Infared sensors in Caleb’s and Malcolm’s hyperspectral suites determined that there were over 30 terrorists inside – two on each of the 10 floors, walking patrol routes and checking in at 2 minute intervals. The rest, they were unsure of.

Pete was easily able to obtain the buildings blueprints and deduced that the party would likely be on the 8th floor – and the hostages and rest of the terrorists were likely there as well.

Daiichi, Pete, and Terrance had Tuxedos ordered. The unit decided on a stealth approach, and if they were to be found – they wanted to be able to play innocent. Malcolm could stay invisible, so he did not need this. Caleb’s body is too bulky for that ruse to work.

Shortly after the Tuxedo’s arrived, Jennifer lived up to her call sign of “Wraith” by turning into a ghostly form and flying through the wall of the building – bringing a vial of Daiichi’s blood and a laptop along with her, instead of her pistol. Inside, she discovered that the buildings entire power supply had been shut off – all alarms had been disabled. This seemed a bit too easy, but the unit was thankful for a break.

She proceeded to open a maintenance entrance to allow Malcolm to enter, and then moved down to the basement to investigate the power situation.

Terrorist Patrol

While waiting for the tuxedos and planning, Pete had been recording the check ins from each of the patrol units – and had prepared a randomized loop that he planned to insert after each guard had been taken out.Malcolm, still invisible, proceeded to stalk his prey until they were at a choke point – a doorway – until he slipped and fell on a streak of blood.

Malcolm got a critical fail on his stealth check, OUCH!

While the guard was not able to determine exactly where the sound came from, he was put on alert. Daiichi – who had been monitoring through his Tac-Comm, quickly reacted by running inside and hiding in a bathroom that was out of sight of the guards.

Inside, he smeared some blood on himself, hid his Tac-Comm glasses, and yelled something along the lines of “WTF”.

The guards, who had already alerted their command that something was suspicious downstairs went to check it out. One captured Daiichi, restrained him with cuff-tape, and took him to an elevator – confirming what the Unit had suspected – that the elevators ran on an backup generator.

Daiichi stepped into the elevator, in his bloody tuxedo – after convincing the first guard (but not this one) that he was an innocent, lost party guest.

After the elevator left, Daiichi began a bantering dialogue with his captor – who he learned was named “John”.

Once upstairs, Daiichi and his guard – John, now stood before a row of hostages. John asked if any of them knew Daiichi – as he had no ID broadcast they were unable to identify him. As nobody was able to ID him, John made good on a threat from earlier and shot Daiichi in the head.

Downstairs, everybody heard the shot go off, and the screams that followed. Malcolm seized the opportunity to eliminate the other two guards in quick succession with his blade.

The rest of the team made their way in, and Pete overrode the controls on two elevators – the one that Daiichi left in, and the one directly across from it. He also programmed the lights to not display the movement of the elevator. They discovered in the elevator what Daiichi had seen before – two bodies slumped in a pool of blood. The infrared sensors saw that the man’s body temperature was not as low as the woman’s – he was alive, and in shock. He was Eric Page, and she was Elise Page, as their RF Id’s were broadcasting. Jennifer gave him the vial of Daiichi’s blood and he began to heal, albeit slowly. He was escorted out of the building.

Upstairs, Daiichi awoke, much of his clothes destroyed by his blood splatter, sitting in the corner of a room – now with 4 more guards. John told him it was a neat trick, but not to try anything because they could just keep putting him down.

This was totally not metagaming. Chris promises!

While Daiichi and John continued to poke insults at each other, the rest of the team was readying attack. Daiichi knew this was coming soon, so he told John he was going to take a nap and closed his ears.

It was right then that Jennifer – in her wraith form, flew into room and let out a deathly wail, inspiring supernatural levels of fear in most of the terrorists. It was quickly followed by two elevator doors opening and flashbangs leaving only 2-3 guards standing still able to function.

A storm of blades and bullets were let go – Daiichi managed to steal a gun from one of the disabled guards in front of him, and took a shot at John – he went down. Caleb charged across the room and took a man’s head off with his blade in a single stroke. Malcolm made quick work of the four other guards that had been guarding Daiichi with his Protean weapon – much like Yoshiharu did with his shoulder mounted protean gun. Within a matter of seconds the battle was decided and the remaining terrorists quickly surrendered. One particularly unlucky terrorist believed that he was being attacked by a swarm of zombies, but it was in fact a piano. Terrance has strange powers…

Upon hearing the shots firing the SAT (Special Assault Team) breached and fought their way through the other 6 floors of guards, most of whom surrendered.

Noticing that not all of the expected hostages were present, Terrance began to probe into the minds of the surrendered terrorists and learned that they had been executed. He lead the group to the room where they lay dead, their blood used to paint a gruesome name upon the wall – Noblesse Oblige.

Just as they made this discovery, an officer rushed to the MCU with a datapad displaying something that was broadcasting in 2.0:

“You’ve already seen the news. Terrorists have attacked Link Technologies Tower, the headlines will say. They do not lie. I am the leader of these terrorists. We are called Noblesse Oblige. Some out there may recognize this name. It is a term that was used in the past – literally meaning “nobility obliges”. It is a virtue, an ideal to live by – one that has been forgotten in these times. It is the idea that those with power ought to uplift and protect the weak. Today, money is power, but those with money use it only to gain more money. They care not for the downtrodden who toil in their factories, or the over stressed white collar worker who stays all hours of the night, neglecting his family, to make a deadline. The world deserves better than this. For decades we have tried the humane route, but those with wealth have had the power to make the rules they want. We will accept this no more. We do not have the power to to change the world with our voice, so we will use our hands instead. We will target only the wealthy, only the powerful. You oppressed many have nothing to fear, so long as you don’t seek to protect them. We will not turn away your aid, join our fight and show the powerful that the weak are still to be feared."

“So what now?” Daiichi asked.

“Now, we find the people responsible for this. Time to get your equipment out.”

The group spent the rest of the day analyzing the crime scene.

Everybody earned 3 XP by default this game.

Daiichi earned 1 bonus XP for being voted MVP.

Terrance earned 1 bonus XP for a bounty (using the Piano in the fight)